Let’s Play D&D With Sterling Archer
This week we’re all becoming super spies and going to the danger zone when we play D&D with Sterling Archer.
In case you didn’t know, Archer is back today. The animated show of terrible super-spies and worse coworkers is officially going into its fourteenth season since 2009. Part of this success is probably attributed to the delightfully unlikeable characters. They’re a perfect example of people who we don’t want to be friends with but love seeing act like idiots on TV. And with a pretty basic set of individual skills, they basically make up their own version of your worst (and sometimes most effective) D&D party. In fact, the title character Archer is basically your average high-level character. Skilled, still alive for reasons that defy reason or logic, and a little intolerable. So this week we’re playing D&D with…
Sterling Archer
When I said that Archer is very similar to your average D&D character, I didn’t just mean that he has a baseline terribleness about equal to your most overconfident tablemate. Though he absolutely does. He also fits very nicely into an already established D&D archetype. Archer is described as being one of–if not the world’s deadliest spy. And that sounds a lot like an Assassin Rogue to me. I think most subclasses of Rogue would work just fine, but Assassin really leans into his skill for making things dead- even if by accident.
His ability scores I think fit fairly well for who Archer is as a person. His dexterity is ridiculously high, his strength is decent, and he’s surprisingly smart. But smarts don’t equal wisdom and sometimes he walks right into traps or hooks up with obvious enemies. You’d think that his charisma would be high, but that faux charm is almost entirely based on good looks and skill. Almost everyone who spends any time talking to him thinks he’s the worst. And of course, constitution could have been higher, but at the end of the day, Archer is a pretty normal person. If anything his constitution should be a little higher to account for the constant hangover he should have.
via FX
As a base, Rogue has a lot of what we want for this character, but definitely not everything. Admittedly, something like 80% of what makes Archer recognizable is his charm and persona. And that’s something that you’ll probably cover yourself at the table with some roleplaying. But I wanted to fill in some of the remaining blanks with Feats. Lucky accounts for Archer’s uncanny ability to fail into success and not die in the face of literally impossible odds. I gave him athlete because he really is good at the physical aspects of combat and spywork. And gunner and sharpshooter are similar but have different firearms skills, making them deadly and effective at just about any range.
Are you tuning in for Archer this evening? Which character is your favorite? What show, movie, book, game, or comic should I make sheets from next time? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
